Orthotopic heart transplantation: ten years' clinical experience.
BACKGROUND
Heart transplantation is the "gold standard" in the treatment of patients with end-stage heart failure who satisfy strict selection criteria.


METHODS
We reviewed ten years' clinical experience (1996-2006) from 53 orthotopic transplants in our centre.


RESULTS
Low perioperative (3.7%) and long-term (7.5%) mortality rates yielded a 95% survival rate in the first year, 92% at five years, and 70% at ten years--significantly better than the corresponding rates worldwide. In addition, excellent functional recovery was achieved in all transplant recipients.


CONCLUSIONS
The strict application of international criteria in the selection of both candidates and donors, together with uninterrupted, multidisciplinary follow up, have made it feasible to perform heart transplantation with excellent results, despite the curiously low number of potential recipients and the shortage of acceptable donor hearts.
Manginas
Athanassios
A
First Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Transplantation Services, Onassis Cardiac Surgical Centre, Athens, Greece.
Sfyrakis
Petros
P
Stavridis
Georgios
G
Louka
Loui
L
Zarkalis
Dimitrios
D
Tsourelis
Loukas
L
Adamopoulos
Stamatis
S
Karavolias
Georgios
G
Apostolopoulou
Sotiria
S
Antoniou
Theofani
T
Thanopoulos
Apostolos
A
Rellia
Panagiota
P
Kaklamanis
Loukas
L
Melissari
Efthymia
E
Mastorakou
Irini
I
Degiannis
Dimitrios
D
Manoli
Eleni
E
Saroglou
Georgios
G
Geroulanos
Stefanos
S
Alivizatos
Petros A
PA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002316:Cardiotonic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece / Q000453:epidemiology; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000401:mortality / Q000502:physiology; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional
D002316:Cardiotonic Agents